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Saturday, April 29, 2017

If there was only one sentence to sum up the entire ethos of the current titular US president, it would be this: “I thought it would be easier.” That’s what Don said about being president, reinforcing his image as a lightweight. He deserves all the scorn he’s getting.

But could there be a hidden message in his comments to Reuters? The whole quote:

"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

That sounds like someone setting the stage to just up and quit. Indeed, quitting is by far the most likely way that Don would depart before the next election. No matter what he does, Republicans in Congress, who clearly care about nothing other than holding power, would never—ever—impeach him, let alone remove him from office. Neither will they use the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to remove him, though that’s probably a good thing, since it would amount to a coup.

But if Don just quits, he’d give Mike Pence time to become identified as president before the elections. But when would be best for that?

If Don quits with less than half of his term to go, then Mike could run for two terms of his own, though on the face of it a zealous religious extremist like Mike would seem unlikely to be a successful candidate.

On the other hand, if Don quits sooner, say, within the next year or so, it would give voters time to forget what a disastrous joke he’s been, and that may mean that Republicans can be assured of maintaining control of Congress. Mike is a loyal Republican (though he ranks it well below his religion…), so he might be willing to put aside his personal ambition—two terms plus nearly half of Don’s—in order to keep his party in power.

The problem for them is that Don clearly doesn’t care about the Republican Party or its future, and he certainly couldn’t care less about what happens to Mike. If he does quit, it’ll be when he feels like it, no matter how that affects the Republican Party.

Will he quit? I think he will either quit before the 2020 elections, or he’ll stay and possibly win re-election (right now, there are FAR too many unknowns to gauge whether Don would win re-election, so that’s a topic for a future time). If he quits, it could be sudden. If he does quit, his remarks to Reuters will prove to have been the first hint.

But whether he quits or not, one other thing is evident from the interview with Reuters: The man is absolutely obsessed with relitigating the 2016 election. He clearly hates the fact that he lost the popular vote, and he’s trying to find all sorts of imaginative ways to try to rewrite history and facts. He has proven there really is such a thing as a "sore winner".

Don apparently really did think that being president was like being a king, and with a wave his small hand his bidding would be done. You would think that a man who spent years attacking President Obama at every opportunity would realise that plenty of people would now be attacking him, but it seems Don didn’t work that out, and the realisation is now helping drive his dissatisfaction with his job. Maybe it’s really true that he never expected or wanted to win. It sure looks that way.

If he were any ordinary worker and felt so dissatisfied with his job, the logical advice would be to quit. Like many people, I hope that’s advice Don takes. Being president is never easy. The USA needs a president who knows that and can deal with that reality, and Don can never be that person.